


seen the scars (reflect in your eyes)

by BoudicaMuse



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Din's complicated relationship with the Mandalorian Creed, Keldabe Kiss, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Yavin IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:35:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29789982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoudicaMuse/pseuds/BoudicaMuse
Summary: There were some days Din felt as though his entire presence in this universe had become one long, stifled sigh.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 17
Kudos: 211





	seen the scars (reflect in your eyes)

**Author's Note:**

> Written based on this prompt from the lovely crimtastic:
> 
> In universe - After many months, Din is finally convinced to see how Grogu is doing. He only has the name of the jetii who took Grogu, the name of a golden myth Din knows nothing of, which lead him to the jungle wastes of Yavin IV. As welcoming as the jetii is, and the joy at Grogu to see his dad again, there is an undercurrent from Luke that Din can somehow sense - disappointment.

Din took one last fond look at an exhausted, contented Grogu snuggled deep in his pillow and turned back to the main room. The Jedi--"Luke. Please, just Luke."--had already begun cleaning up from the evening meal. 

Like every night since Din had arrived, a bowl of food had been left waiting for him on the table. No questions asked when he didn't eat with them, no invasive probing for loopholes in the Creed, just unspoken acceptance. It was almost enough to make him feel comfortable, a state so foreign to him, Din would be suspicious if he felt himself slipping into it.

Luke grinned at him over his shoulder when he heard Din's footsteps, his hands busy with rinsing out the stew pot. "I didn't think he'd make it all the way through dinner."

"The only thing keeping him from falling asleep in his bowl was how fast he eats," Din agreed. Dry, but fond all the same.

"We should spar again tomorrow since he enjoyed it so much."

They had spent most of the afternoon demonstrating various forms of combat for Grogu. Hand-to-hand, staff against spear, even target practice with their blasters, each round drawing louder squealing cheers from their lone spectator. But the moment that flashed through Din's mind then was when at last, they had brought out their sabers. It all rushed back with a visceral intensity. Vibrant green and void black clashed and crossed between them, opposite currents of plasma catching and holding, and for the space of one hitched breath Din had been caught, too. 

Din let out a slow, measured breath and made himself shake off the memory of Luke's surprise-widened gaze so close to his own and the way it had made his gut clench.

"Don't mind the exercise, but shouldn't the kid be the one who's training?"

"He can learn and be entertained at the same time." Luke turned, wiping his hands dry on a rag. Just looking at them, you'd never know one was robotic if not for the careful, thorough way Luke removed every trace of wetness from his right hand. "It will be quite some time before he's ready to train in combat himself. Watching us fight takes the edge off of his anticipation."

Din dipped his head in easy acceptance of that explanation. Not that he needed much convincing to square off against Luke again. Any fight against a worthy opponent was welcome, but it had been too long since he had the pleasure of fighting for the sole purpose of testing his strength and instinct. No life or death consequences, no stakes to wager, just sore muscles and satisfaction at the end of the day.

"Tomorrow then." 

Din reached for the bowl on the table, already looking forward to getting out of the oppressive humidity of the jungle. The air on board his ship might be circulated and the shower was sonic instead of water-fed, but at least he could spend a few hours without feeling like the atmosphere was trying to swallow him whole.

There was a pause where Luke's "goodnight" should have been and then, there it was. Whatever it was about him that bothered Luke, that had been bothering him since almost the first night Din landed on Yavin IV, Luke was visibly choosing not to bring it up. Instead, there was a pause, a serene smile that never reached his eyes, and a quiet, "goodnight, Din."

Din had spent his entire adult life feeling annoyed or frustrated by the people around him and then choosing not to act on it. There were some among his tribe who had taken the Creed as an excuse to rise to any and all challenges. Din had never found much satisfaction in that kind of fight. Too easy, too quick, and ultimately not worth the broken furniture. So he'd learned early on how to let it all go without so much as a sigh. Sighs led to stupid fights just as much as words did.

There were some days Din felt as though his entire presence in this universe had become one long, stifled sigh. 

Another pause, this time Din's fault, while he fumbled his own line in this play they'd been acting out night after night. The pause stretched out further, the bowl held awkwardly between them, until finally Din set the bowl back down with a clack of finality.

"Something wrong with the food?" Luke said it evenly enough, but his eyes didn't lift to Din's visor. 

Din let the sigh fly free. "You know it's not the food."

Luke did lift his eyes then, unerringly finding his through the visor as they always did. Like his helmet was no obstacle at all to seeing straight through to the man inside. It should have been unsettling, but Din's body disagreed. Instead, a direct look from Luke always seemed to inspire a heavy, warm feeling in his chest. 

"Oh good," Luke said with a false lightness. "Although I was ready to blame it on the extra peppers Grogu tossed in when I wasn't looking."

"Is it…" Din's tongue felt thick in his mouth. He didn't want to ask, but he'd gone and let the sigh out. There was no taking it back now. "Do you want me to go?"

"What? No!" Then Luke ducked his head and rubbed at the back of his neck and when that wasn't enough to ease the flare of embarrassment pinking his cheeks, turned away entirely to fiddle his glove back on. 

"We never talked about how long I would stay. I understand if I've overstayed my welcome."

Din watched Luke take in one long breath, then another. His shoulders straightened out, and then his spine, as he reached for that inner calm he was always preaching to Grogu about. When he turned back to face him, the embarrassment was gone, replaced with something more resigned.

"You could never overstay your welcome here. You are Grogu's father and, I hope, my friend. You are, and always will be, welcome here."

There was that warmth in Din's chest again, accompanied by a sharp pang of… something. Something familiar but out of reach. Whatever it was, it was buried too far back in his memories to grasp ahold of.

"Then what is it?" 

If it wasn't that he wanted him to go, then for all Luke's acceptance, there was only one thing left. Another plea to forsake his Creed, to remove his helmet. To ease the discomfort of others who didn't understand the cost that comfort asked of Din.

"I know there will eventually be greater responsibilities that call you away from here, but while you are here," Luke shrugged helplessly, "I just wish you felt more at home."

It hurt. He'd been expecting it, but it hurt all the same. The thousandth tiny cut of people wanting more from Din that he was able to give. Still, at least he had a rote answer for this.

"My Creed forbids--"

Luke's eyes widened and he stepped away from the countertop to round the table separating them, his hand outstretched. "That's not what I meant! Din, I would never ask you to sacrifice your beliefs. Never."

Never. Huh. Now why did that pinch and chafe just as much as the expectation that he would be asked to reveal himself? Another question to add to the pile of things to inspect sometime in the very distant future. 

"Oh. Thank you." He got it out with a stiff quietness that stuck in his throat.

"I know you've had to compromise in the past, and I know you don't take it lightly. That's not what I meant at all." Luke was just as quiet, careful when invoking the memory of their first meeting. "I just meant there's plenty of room for you here at the temple. You don't have to bunk down in your ship every night."

Oh.

"It's hot out here." But that didn't seem like enough of a reason to deny Luke's hospitality. Not when they'd both been baked alive by Tatooine's twin suns. "Pretty sure I've lost five kilos since I landed from sweat alone. Plus, I think the vines might strangle me in my sleep."

They both turned to the one creeping through a crack in the ceiling to frame the doorway. It was menacingly thick above their heads, as thick as one of Din's thighs, and even the tiny tendrils near the floor seemed to grasp and reach for them whenever they passed through the door.

"They don't grow that fast," Luke said mildly. "I'm sure you could scream for help before it suffocated you."

Din huffed out a laugh, grateful for the break in the awful tension they'd built up between them and to see the fight he'd readied himself for dissolve before it ever got started. This sort of fight felt nothing like the kind you settled with fists and blood and in the end, they always hurt a lot more.

"It's still cooler in my ship."

Another pause, heavier this time, though Din wasn't sure what caused the weight. Then slowly, as though he was giving Din plenty of time to escape, Luke lifted his gloved hand and laid it against the side of his helmet. The cause clearer, the weight only increased until Din thought his breath might be stuck in his chest forever.

"As long as it's just the heat driving you away."

The breath Din was holding finally escaped him in a long, low hiss and with a deliberate thought for how it would all be read, leaned into Luke's touch.

"Not just the heat," he said, and when Luke twitched away from him, Din shot out a hand to catch him around the waist. Not pulling him any closer, just keeping him there. "The bugs, too."

Luke smiled and ducked his head, and he didn't know, couldn't know, but his bent head felt like more of an invitation than his wide, hopeful eyes ever could. Softly, and with careful awareness of the fragility of human skulls, Din lowered his head to Luke's, his hand coming up to cradle the back of his neck.

"I will have to leave at some point." Din had been dreading it since the moment he received Luke's first message inviting him to visit. "It won't be because I want to, though."

"As long as you know you can come back." Luke's hand slid around to settle on Din's neck, his thumb pressing into the narrow gap of exposed skin. "And not yet."

Din hummed in agreement. "Not yet."

Together they let out a long, slow exhale. The hot press of the the jungle around them, the weight of expectations hanging at his hip, it all fell away before their shared breath. And if Din were the sort of person to dwell on what made a place a home, he'd still say the fourth moon of Yavin fell short. By a long shot. But then, nowhere other than his parents' house had ever felt like home. 

People, though. People could make him feel _at_ home. For a long time, the tribe had done that and no one else. No one until now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you've made it this far, please leave a kudos and if you really want to make my day, you can leave me a comment!


End file.
